I've decided I want a winter tent with stove more than a solo canoe. Having never tried one - just unheated below zero camping every winter for past 12 years - I think I read here that in fact a normal fire only raises tent temp for maybe 2 hi ours after turning on. I wondered if - camping not far from vehicle - pea coal could be banked and produce heat much longer. Anyone have experience? (Also love the aroma of a coal fire.)

I was always told the stove is NOT running while sleeping...?

quote Doughboy12: "I was always told the stove is NOT running while sleeping...?"

I haven't done much cold camping in recent times but when I was younger I seem to remember the stove being loaded and set up one last time before lights out, it would slow burn and the nice bed of coals would put off heat till late morning

I've done a fair bit of winter camping with a stove and I have to say I was a bit disapointed about the burn times. I bought the Kni-Co Alaskan as it is their largest stove. My thoughts were that I would get a great bed of coals going and then stuff it with wood right before sleep time and damp it down. I thought it would burn most of the night if not all of it. However it has been my experience that the stove burns no longer than a couple hours. In my area (Ontario) most of the wood is Pine or Spruce so it burns quick anyway. I have also tried a long burning (all natural) compressed log (from Rona) and it burned a bit longer but still only a few hours. So what I do now is let it burn out as I drift off to sleep and then get hunkered down into my bag for the duration of the nigth at ambient temperatures.

But I'd be curious too about the coal (not sure if there would be an issue with fumes or too much heat damaging the stove?)

Limited storage means I do not own a hot tent setup, but have frequently used them. Burn time depends on type of stove and size and quality of fuel.
Wall Tents has a lot of good informaion. Also Four Dog Stoves.

butthead

PS: If co buildup at nite worries you get a battery powered co detector. bh

More of a fire hazard than a CO deal...I was told.

Coal burns hotter then wood, so I would be a bit concerned about quick burn out of the typical sheet metal stove sold for hot tenting.

When winter camping, you have to be on your toes concerning the possibility of fire, so be careful with any and all fuel sources.

I have found that under the best circumstances and burning hard woods, I can get about 3 hours at most from a stove full of wood. However, I do not go to bed with the stove fully banked. I head for bed when the tent starts getting cool if it's around night-night time. I just don't want to be asleep and have a stove problem, not that I ever have.

It's not wise to depend upon your fire to keep you warm whilst sleeping. Invest in proper sleeping equipment and you'll be comfy all night. Bring along your favorite son-in-law to start the fire up in the morning and you're good to go.

Hot tenting is a wonderful way to extend your camping seasons and it is a great treat to be sitting in a warm, cozy tent, sipping a bit of Canadian whiskey, while winter swirls all around you. Life don't get no better!

I always make sure I have a tinder pile, kindling pile and split wood ready to go for the second I get out of bed in the morning. I don't want to have to get all that stuff ready. When its -25 I just want to stick it in the stove, light it and start getting that tent warmed up!

Not sure about coal, but if you get a hot bed of coals going, and fill her up with some larger logs, dampen her down to minimum air flow, you can get several hours. I usually sleep outside at night, but have slept in the tent on several occasions while successfully keeping her going all night. The trick is to have some good wood in the tent and fill her up when you wake up every several hours (drink lots of water during the night, it will help ;-)

My Kozy Kamp stove burned about 4 hrs with a bed of coals and filled with hardwood. Not bad, I usually have to get up in the middle of the night anyway so really not too much of an Inconveniance to fill it back up with wood let it catch and heat the tent back up then back to sleep.

I'm using the tent as a base camp for deer season so I can bring Hickory and oak for good burn time. To clarify my 4 hr burn time was with the stove running 400 Deg with an outside temp of 32.

I have never used coal in my stove and I completely agree with awbrown. Unless you feel like waking up every couple hours in the middle of the night make sure you have a good quality sleeping bag and pad for sleeping. We do get the stove going pretty good before we go to bed, but we use good sleeping bags and exped pads and most nights we never wake up once. I brought a friend along 1 time and he had a semi cheap sleeping bag and he was waking us up every couple hours stoking the stove because he was freezing. He was sleeping on a cot up off the ground.
Another issue is the quality of wood in the BWCA it can be very tough to find good quality wood in the winter. We were up the gunflint last December for 4 days and it never got above 0. Two of the nights pushed -30 and those nights were hard just to get the tent warmed up in the first place.

I agree with the above comment as well. When I first got my hot tent I assumed if I got a big stove I would be able to burn all night long. Well the longest burn I can get is about 2 1/2 hours and I'm not waking up that often to keep feeding it. So this year I've invested in a -60 bag so I'll be toasty all night long. I'll still keep that pile of kindling and tinder ready to go as soon as I wake up in the morning though